1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to a method of producing a thin-film device using a transferring technique by which a thin-film circuit layer or a fine structure formed on an element-formation substrate is transferred onto another substrate.
2. Description of Related Art
For related art devices, such as liquid-crystal displays (LCD), organic EL displays, etc., it may be desirable to use a plastic substrate as a base so that the devices are prevented from being broken when they are deformed or dropped, or so that the cost of the devices is reduced.
However, manufacturing thin-film transistors for use in a panel display device, etc., includes a process which is carried out at a relatively high temperature. Thus, problems occur in that plastic substrates or circuit elements, such as organic EL elements, cannot be used in the above-mentioned process.
The Applicant of the present invention invented a related art transfer technique for producing a thin-film device, by which a semiconductor device is formed on a heat resistant substrate by a semiconductor manufacturing technique including a high temperature semiconductor process, and an element-formation layer having the semiconductor device formed therein is released, and then bonded to a plastic substrate. For example, such release and transfer techniques are disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 10-12529, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 10-12530, and Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 10-12531. Thus, the formation of a thin-film device is realized by transferring, to a plastic substrate, a thin-film circuit layer of a thin-film transistor, etc., produced in a high temperature process using the above-described release-transfer technique.